At 8 P.M, in the street for young people in `Shinchon` we`re going in Hong-Dae direction from Grand Mart. What do you see in the building one story below and besides the Nong-Hyup? It is the Rolling Stones. There are red lips at the entrance. The red lips are stimulative and impulsive things that are symbolics of the Rolling Stones. The Rolling Stones are filled with enthusiasm; guitar sound, hard beating drum, a bass losing control of itself, and shouting people... A vocalist with dyed yellow hair sings in a loud voice. There was no place to stand and the space was overflowing with young people. Everyone swayed as if intoxicated with the music. This is my first experience of a live club.
The history of live clubs
At a live club the audience can meet the bands which play rock music lively. The rock music which started in the mid 50s in the USA is known for its synthesizer sound and fast energetic beat. Unlike rock cafes, live clubs prefer live music for performances and appreciation. Here underground groups that do not appear in the mass media perform underground. Korea뭩 first punk rock club came into existence in July, 1994. Live clubs went through trial and error till the government recognized and legalized live clubs in June, 1996. Now live clubs started to be somewhere around Shinchon and Hong-Dae and later were established in Daehakro and Apkujong. Each of the live clubs create the environment of unique individuality owing to their extended numbers.
Do you know why young people go to live clubs?
The audience I saw was almost all university, middle, and high school, students. They took delight in seeing music videos before the performances. As the bands take up live music shows, the audience is absorbed in the music without felling of someone else`s eyes. The main body of performance was not a band, but it was the audience. Some of them told me, "Here we come to feel real freedom", "I learned passion of life from bands that I was absorbed in watching their performing." I could know what made young people wild with excitement. Searching for favorite bands and genre, young people were enthusiastic about absorbing in the music and singing songs. Therefore young people are finding real freedom. The older generation were far from being satisfactory with live clubs, but today`s generation can go to a variety of exciting live clubs. It may be the right of young people.
Right path of the underground bands
Underground musicians of 70s~80s thought the underground as the means to go into public. But club bands of the mid 90s were organized to improvise these bands. They think that people only want to sing. Acting bands do not care about any guarantees or becoming popular. Many people worry about these things, and actually many live clubs can become dangerous because underground musicians think it is easy to run clubs and only have amateur training. But if underground musicians make experimental music, it will contribute to the various music in the uniform mass media. For example, Jaoorimm and JuJuClub, remain in our recent memory. A fact that some experimental bands produce albums means that they have contributed and will make more contributions to Korea`s music scene.
Live clubs are unusual experiences. But many of live clubs are not clean, inconvenient and they occupy limited space. These places sometimes have unsatisfying bands and I think that the audience is responsible for some of these problems. They have revealed themselves to those who were not decorated under poor circumstances. And they do the best when performing. If you don`t have any grievances about living in a barren culture, what do you say about our going out to the live clubs some weekend?
Cho Si-hyung
sudamak@hanmail.net